Data Privacy Statement
1. COMMITMENT TO PRIVACY
Louisiana State University Health Shreveport (LSUHS) is committed to maintaining the privacy and security of any collected confidential or highly sensitive personal information. This policy has been adopted to address the collection, use, and dissemination of personal information by LSUHS. This policy is subject to change over time, as the technologies utilized to provide services via the Internet continue to develop and evolve. Despite changes in technology, any alterations to this policy will not affect the University’s commitment to privacy.
2. GENERAL STATEMENT
This policy applies to all information digitally collected by or submitted to LSUHS. LSUHS receives information via two primary methods:
- Information collected automatically via websites
- Information voluntarily provided by the user in order to receive information and/or services (via web forms and email).
3. INFORMATION COLLECTION
3.1 AUTOMATIC COLLECTION
If a user has not taken specific steps to anonymize their personal web traffic (e.g. apply mechanisms such as the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on that disable the collection of data for analytical purposes), official LSUHS websites may collect certain information automatically. This information includes, but is not limited to:
- User’s Internet protocol (IP) address
- Internet service provider
- Operating system
- The time and date of the visit
- Browser
- The site from which the user visited
- Cookie information (if applicable)
Any information collected automatically is not associated with any other information held by LSUHS (i.e. not linked with information voluntarily provided to LSUHS) unless LSUHS is required to do so by law.
3.2 VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION
In order to provide information and/or services, LSUHS may request users to provide personal data, some of which may be personally identifiable information. Information such as name, date of birth, email address, etc. can be collected via voluntary submission of an email or web form to an LSUHS entity.
4. INFORMATION USE
Website information that is gathered automatically is utilized to improve the understanding of how LSUHS provided websites are being leveraged by the user community. For example, this LSUHS website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses “cookies” (i.e. files used to track website activity) to determine how users navigate LSUHS sites. Google uses this cookie data for various purposes, including the evaluation of website use, reports on website activity, and other services. Please visit the following pages for more information on Google Analytics’ Terms of Service and Google’s privacy practices.
Any information submitted to LSUHS voluntarily in order to receive services and/or information will only be utilized to conduct official LSUHS business. LSUHS may disseminate voluntarily submitted information to third parties and offices/departments within LSUHS to the extent necessary in order to provide the requested services and/or information. LSUHS may also disseminate such information if required by applicable law-enforcement agencies.
LSUHS will not disclose any information submitted voluntarily for reasons other than mentioned above, without clear notice and the opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such uses. LSUHS will never sell or trade voluntarily submitted information to other entities unless a prior consent has been obtained and/or such information is being shared in response to a subpoena, court order, or legal process.
There is no legal requirement for a user to provide any information to LSUHS. However, without certain information, LSUHS websites and services may not function as intended and features may be inaccessible.
5. USE OF COOKIES
Some LSUHS websites use cookies (beyond cookies utilized by Google Analytics), which enable LSUHS to further tailor its web services to the needs of the user community. Cookie data assists LSUHS in improving both web content and distribution. Users have the right to refuse the use of cookies by implementing technical configurations in their web browsers; however, functionalities of certain sites may be impacted if such configurations are implemented.
6. EXTERNAL LINKS
Some LSUHS sites may contain links to external websites not owned by, or officially affiliated with, LSUHS in any way. If a user decides to navigate to external links, he/she will leave the LSUHS website and thus, LSUHS is not responsible for privacy practices or the content of such websites. Navigating to external links is done at the user’s own risk and users should be aware that LSUHS policies no longer apply. LSUHS recommends that users review the privacy policy and applicable terms of all sites they visit.
7. DATA SECURITY
LSUHS implements stringent security measures wherever possible to promote confidentiality, integrity, and availability of any information in the possession of LSUHS. LSUHS websites that allow users to submit information voluntarily utilize encryption to prevent third-parties from viewing the submitted data. Personal information voluntarily submitted via email cannot leverage encryption in most cases, and thus email is not a mechanism that LSUHS will recommend for submitting confidential and/or personal data. Users that submit unsolicited confidential and/or personal information via email must do so at their own risk.
While the security of user data is of the utmost importance to LSUHS, due to the nature of Internet communications, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Any information transmitted to LSUHS by the user is done so at the user’s own risk. Once the information is received by LSUHS, LSUHS will make every effort to ensure the security of data on LSUHS systems.